In August 2020, the North American Classification Committee (NACC) of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) voted to rename McCown’s Longspur. The longspur was originally named after Captain John P. McCown, a military man and naturalist who collected the species in 1851. He was the only person for whom a bird was named who also fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. It was this part of history which prompted the desire to change the bird’s name.